Ball, Base, Backup
by Lexipoo-Panda
Summary: Mihashi is three weeks into his new school year and new school all together when a hyperactive freckled boy approaches him and asks a very important question. Follow the boys on their quest to find the 2 remaining pals to start a band with and then their claim to fame as they woo the crowds and find love along the way
1. Chapter 1

Ever since Mihashi had moved to Nishiura, he always knew he was different. The kids surrounding him, they were locals, they grew up here, they knew how to conform. But he knew he couldn't conform, he knew he couldn't be the normal high school student. His once blonde hair was died black and there was a piercing in his lip and two in his ears. He was still too young to get a tattoo, but as soon as he was old enough, he would have that tattoo and keep adding from there.

It was the normal time his bus came around to pick him up and it was three weeks into his new school year at his new school and he still didn't have any friends, nor did anyone want to approach him. He didn't fit into the category of "normal" and so whenever he climbed onto the bus, everyone shied away from him. He didn't really care, though, he could handle being alone, he always had.

So again and again he would find his normal seat, which had been left untouched since he sat there for the first time, hunkered down into the seat, popped in some earbuds and watched the scenery pass by. He left a yawn slip by and a rub of his eyes and before he knew it, the bus was arriving at school. As per usual, he would let all of the other passengers pass by his seat before he got up and walked out, slinging his bag over one shoulder.

He knew people were looking at him, every single time he walked into the school, the same eyes would look up for their daily routines to watch him walk to his own locker. He didn't make eye contact, he acted disinterested, but today already felt different.

He could feel the pull and push of the dial when he turned it one way or the next to make sure he got to the right numbers at the right time. As soon as the locker was open and he was digging in his bag to find the right things to put away, someone leaned onto the locker next to his. They didn't attempt to open the locker, they just leaned and looked at him. His eyes looked up from his bag and at the boy next to him instead.

"Can I help you with something?" he asked, his eyebrows knitting together, confused that someone, after three weeks, no doubt, was finally acting like he existed. This guy had red-brown eyes and dark brown hair, freckles dotting across his nose. He seemed normal, well the norm for this high school anyways.

"What's your name, new kid?" he asked with a grin on his face. It was pure, one could tell. Mihashi was able to see that the boy wasn't playing with him, he was genuinely looking forward to the other answering his question.

"Mihashi. Ren Mihashi," he answered, still looking confusedly at the other, "what's your name, old kid?" he retorted.

"Yuuichiro Tajima," he answered right away with a nod of his head, "does your face always look like that or are you more punk than I thought?"

Mihashi was taken aback, he was completely confused at the other teenager standing before him. Why was he asking so many questions and why was he suddenly interested in him now?

"I'm fairly punk," he answered. Suddenly the anxious feeling he had thought he got rid of came back. He found out he liked to be invisible, he liked to be ignored by his peers. His eyes narrowed when Tajima started to laugh. So they were both even when it came to retorts, Tajima liked that.

"Wanna start a band?" he asked, raising his eyebrows, waiting for the immediate turn down. But he didn't immediately turn him down, oh no, Mihashi paused and thought about, he didn't just jump to conclusions. A thoughtful expression rooted itself on his features before he braced himself against the door of his still open locker.

"A band," he said instead of just speaking his answer. Tajima was nodding his head quickly and a little bounce was added to his waiting posture, a bottom lip bitten in anticipation whilst a smirk found itself onto Mihashi's lips and he nodded his head, "I'd like that."

"Awesome!" he almost yelled and Mihashi had to flinch away from him for fear of going deaf, "okay, so I'm the drummer, do you sing, play any instruments?" he asked excitedly, almost unable to control it.

"I can sing and play guitar," he answered with a nod of his head and a cross of his arms. Tajima gasped, pushing his shoulder slightly, not hard enough to hurt him.

"No shit, dude?!" he asked excitedly, a small bounce and a laugh, "that's awesome!"

Mihashi laughed and shook his head, "do we have any other band members yet?" he inquired, finally packing his bag enough to have all his things and walking with the other to their respective homerooms. Tajima shook his head.

"Not yet, I'm still working on that. We're looking for a bassist and hopefully another guitar and then we'll have our band!"

Mihashi chuckled and smiled for the first time since moving here, "see you later, man," he started to turn into his homeroom. Tajima waved and ran off to his own.

Mihashi was in a band, he was…_he was in a band_. Holy shit. He tried to put the band thing in the back of his mind while school was in session, but he couldn't seem to push it back so it wasn't distracting him. By the time lunch rolled around, he saw Tajima waving at him from across the room. He offered a slight wave and headed over.

The other had a lot of friends, he hadn't even met the others before, hell he didn't remember seeing any of them either in the hallways. Tentatively he sat down next to his only friend, Tajima and let him introduce.

"Okay, so everyone knows the new kid, Mihashi," Tajima ruffled his head and he ducked his head with a chuckle and then after that, he went on to introduce the other six people. There was Izumi, Sakaeguchi, Nishihiro, Suyama, Oki and Mizutani. Instantly Sakaeguchi started talking to Mihashi and they fell into an easy friendship. When their conversation came to an end, Mihashi looked around.

There were two people sitting by themselves at two different tables. Who were they and why were they sitting alone? Now that he had some friends, he was feeling friendlier. He reached over and slapped Tajima on the arm, stopping his fast talking to look at the newest member, "why don't we go and make more friends?" Mihashi asked with a smirk.

"I thought you'd never ask," he answered and the both of them got up and walked over to the two souls sitting by themselves, away from everyone.


	2. Chapter 2

The grey haired boy with the buzz cut saw Mihashi walking toward him and his brown eyes looked around for some sort of escape from the other boy, but there was no escape. He tried to put on a smile for the lone soul, tried to make sure that the other boy would be comfortable with him and not terrified.

"Hi," Ren said, sitting down on the other side of the table so Buzz Cut can leave if he needed or wanted to, "my name is Ren Mihashi, what's yours?" he asked, tilting his head to the side, blinking at him. The boy stared at Mihashi for a little bit, processing the conversation before he spoke so softly, Mihashi almost missed it. He never knew that making just one friend and then that friend helping you with six other friends would bring him out of his shell in order to make _another _friend. Almost like dominoes.

"Hanai…Azusa Hanai," he answered, his eyes looking up at Mihashi before snapping back down to his food. He did this many times, it seemed his anxiety was worse than Mihashi's, though his could get bad in the right situations…wrong situations? In the given situations, Mihashi's anxiety could get as bad as the boy's sitting right in front of him.

"It's nice to meet you, Hanai," Mihashi put another smile on his face, sitting back a little bit, "do you want to come and sit with us?" he asked, tilting his head to the side, "you seem awfully lonely over here all by yourself," he said softly, leaning forward then and bracing his chin on his fingers, his elbows on the top of the table.

Hanai nodded his head thanks to the 'nice to meet you' comment but as soon as Mihashi said something about moving, his head stopped in its movements and he stared shocked at the other. One could see the war of thoughts in his mind just by looking into his eyes. Ren tilted his head to the side, not saying anything, letting the boy come to a conclusion all his own.

While waiting, Tajima was already over at the other, talking up a storm, a huge smile on his face, sitting up and then sitting back down when he knew his emotions were getting too much for him to handle in a sit down position, but knew that he didn't want to scare the other.

Tajima was always good at making someone comfortable in their surroundings. He just started a conversation, already acting as if they had been friends for years, "hello," he said happily, a comfortable smile on his face, friendliness radiating from his body. The brown haired boy stared confused back at Tajima, not really answering, a look of almost disinterest was on his face, rooted in his grey eyes.

But Tajima didn't let the conversation – what he thought it was anyways – die.

"I'm Tajima," he continued as if the other had answered him, "what's yours? And why is it that you're sitting all alone?"

"Abe," he answered, his voice was deeper than Tajima originally thought would come from him, his eyes looking down at his hands. They were steady, his body was relaxed, though Tajima could tell it was an obvious measure not to tense up for Abe, "I like to be alone."

Very vague, Tajima scrutinized him for a little bit before he tilted his head to the side, "well, Abe," he smiled, "you could be alone with us at my table."

"That defeats the purpose of being alone," he answered, turning his gaze outside. Tajima had to admit, he was having a tough time with this deflecting. Tajima was just about to say something when Abe looked back at him again, but he didn't say anything and his eyes didn't stay on Tajima long when they looked at someone walking, he saw the movement of his eyes, he knew he was watching someone. Tajima looked over his shoulder to see that Mihashi had succeeded in getting the buzz cut guy over to their table. It still looked like Mihashi was trying to get him not to change his mind. He did introductions and even traded some of his lunch with the other boy.

Tajima was done watching, but when he turned around, Abe still hadn't looked away and then a smirk rested on his lips, "you like him, don't you?" he asked.

Abe sputtered and a slight blush was on his features, looking back at his too steady hands, shaking his head quickly, "no," he grumbled, taking a big bite of a sandwich, chewing slowly. Tajima laughed loudly.

"Yes you do!" he bounced in his seat, "do you even know what his name is?"

"I do not," Abe growled before he shook his head, his jaw clenched, "no."

"It's Mihashi," he smiled happily, "Ren Mihashi, and he's my friend. You could meet him if you come over to my table," his voice took on a willowy sort of trap for Abe and he could see the war in his eyes.

"No, I like to be alone," Tajima shrugged at his answer and chuckled.

"Okay, so what sort of music do you like?" he asked, tilting his head to the side and waiting for the boy to answer. He would change the subject for right now and circle it back to Mihashi eventually.

"Mostly punk, metal and lots of bands," he answered, "but some pop music is good too," he shrugged, "whatever is catchy really."

Tajima bounced to his feet and then noticed that Abe jumped so he sat back down and clapped his hands happily, "do you play any instruments?" he asked hopefully, eyes sparkling. Abe's eyes narrowed just like Mihashi's had when he asked the same question.

"Guitar," he said flatly, "why?"

"Because I'm starting a band!" Tajima said right after, bouncing in his seat, "I'm the drummer and Mihashi over there is–"

"Wait, Mihashi?" he butt in, "he's in the band?"

"Yeah, he's the other guitar and he can sing!"

But before Tajima could finish his sentence, Abe was shaking his head no, "no I can't," he finally answered the important question, "I can't join the band."


	3. Chapter 3

"C'mon, Abe! You can't not join the band just because you're afraid of your crush!" Tajima whined and pouted to the boy. Abe was shaking his head and standing firm on his decision.

"It's not because of Mihashi," he grumbled and took another bite of his sandwich. Tajima waited for the boy to continue, but he never did, he just stopped there.

"Well then, why won't you join the band? You're just what we need?" Tajima could tell that Abe was confident, if he so much as wanted to confront Mihashi, he would have already. There was something else holding him back and Tajima would get to the bottom of it one way or another.

"It's none of your damn business," he grunted around his sandwich, which he hadn't chewed completely yet. He looked away from Tajima. So Abe was too proud to say why.

"C'mon, you can tell me," Tajima smiled, "I won't tell anyone," he offered. He wouldn't, really, he wasn't into that whole drama thing, it wasn't his style.

Abe sent a glare his way, "why would you think I'd want to tell you? Just because you were nice to me? Just because you were the first person to sit with me since the beginning of the school year? That's not going to help your case, that's not going to make me open up to you any more than I would open up to Mihashi, crush or not," he nearly yelled. Tajima could see a vein in his neck that was tense with Abe's anger.

"So you admit you have a crush," Tajima wiggled his eyebrows at him.

"We are not friends!" Abe yelled and some of the lunch room got quiet, "we will _never _be friends!"

That stopped Tajima. There was a look of shock on his face and one could tell that he was hurt, though he always kept his depression in check. Tajima closed his mouth and swallowed, standing up, "sorry," he mumbled and walked away.

He didn't go back to the table, he left for the bathroom. Mihashi drew his eyebrows together, what had _that _been about? He watched Tajima leave, then his eyes slid to Abe's. Abe stopped breathing, was he going to come over here? Was he going to talk to him? Was Abe going to get his chance? But no. Mihashi sent a glare at the other boy. His green eyes holding anger at Abe. He didn't want that. Man, now he went and did it.

Mihashi looked at Hanai and said he was going to go check on Tajima, reassuring him they'd meet eventually. Ren stood up and left the lunch room, finding the smaller boy in the bathroom, curled up in the corner, his knees to his chest, "hey," he said softly, "what happened out there?"

"It was nothing," Tajima said softly, shaking his head with a shrug.

"That didn't look like nothing," Mihashi retorted, sitting on the floor with him. Gross, by the way, but anything for a friend, he guessed. That had met mere hours ago, but Mihashi was so attached to Tajima, solely for the purpose that he was nice to him.

"Oh, my big mouth just angered him was all," he shrugged and quirked his lips to the side, "he plays guitar, you know," stated, looking up from his legs to Ren, "so I offered him a place in the band and he said he wouldn't join. I had my own theories, but they weren't proven. There's a reason why he's not joining and I started to pry. He got angry at my prying," he shrugged, trying to put that smile back on.

Mihashi rose his eyebrows and tilted his head to the side, "what were your theories?"

"He has a crush on you, you know," Tajima said softly and Mihashi almost fell over.

"W-What?" there was a nervous laugh escaping through his lips. No one had a crush on him, no one ever did, not even the girls. No one ever found him attractive enough or quirky enough, ever. Regardless of the fact, the boy that made Tajima angry, he would never come near Mihashi. He already disliked the kid, he didn't prefer him and he hoped damn well that the other wouldn't join the band.

"I think you should go talk to him, maybe he would change his mind if you talked to him."

"Oh hell no," Mihashi said stubbornly, shaking his head.

"Why not? You got that other guy over pretty quickly and he seemed comfortable with you there," Tajima was starting to come around.

"Because he made you upset," he said, "we can't have someone in the band that dislikes you and that I dislike already," Ren nodded his head and sighed.

"Please? Maybe this can all work out? Just try to get him in the band, that's all I'm asking. You don't have to figure out his secret, you don't have to like him. We just need another guitar. We _need _him. There isn't another person in this prefecture that plays guitar. I asked."

Mihashi gave him a pained look, almost a 'don't make me do it', but Tajima matched his look with one of pleading and finally Ren broke, "you'll be the death of me," he grumbled and stood up, helping Tajima up as well, "do me a favor, will you, if I'm doing this?"

"What's your favor?" Tajima bounced and grinned, happy that Mihashi was complying at all.

"I brought the other boy over and he's super timid, keep him company and make sure he doesn't freak out. He has pretty bad anxiety," he said, looking at Tajima seriously, "just make him comfortable, yeah?"

"Yeah!" Tajima yelled and it bounced over the walls, making Mihashi flinch, shaking his head and started to walk out, the other running after him.

And so they went back into the lunchroom, Tajima going to their table and Mihashi walking, almost reluctantly, toward the brown hair boy, whom he found out, his name was Abe.

Abe noticed that the other was walking toward him and instantly he wanted out of there. He wanted to leave and never come back. His secret was out, he knew that Mihashi knew about his crush. The smaller boy sat down across from him, tilting his head to the side, raising his eyebrows at him, "h-hello?"

"You nearly made him cry, you know?" Mihashi said, deadly calm, his hands lacing together in front of him.

"What?"

"You didn't need to yell at him like that," Abe could see the tenseness of Mihashi's shoulders and he knew that he was in the doghouse, he knew he was going to get chewed out.

"He was pretty annoying," Abe grumbled and looked away.

"Didn't mean you had to yell at him," Mihashi growled and leaned forward, "I don't like you," he said softly, "I don't like the way you treated Tajima and I don't like that we need you," he crossed his arms, "I'm doing this for Tajima. He wants you in the band and I won't take no for an answer."

"Fine."


	4. Chapter 4

Mihashi sputtered and almost fell off his chair, he wasn't expecting Abe to give in so quickly, "what?" he asked, his eyes huge, confused even.

"Fine, I'll join the band."

Mihashi narrowed his eyes at the boy, "if I find out you're doing this for spite, so help me-"

"I'm not doing it for spite," and for some reason to Mihashi it looked like Abe was sincere. Mihashi's jaw clenched and unclenched over and over again before he sighed and shook his head, "fine, we'll keep you updated about practices," he stood up and walked back over to the table with Hanai and Tajima.

While Tajima was trying to make conversation with Hanai, it wasn't really working until Mihashi came back, but before he could get one word in to Hanai, Tajima was bouncing and gripping his shirt, "soooooo?" he drawled out, excitement in his eyes.

"He said he would do it," Mihashi nodded his head and looked over at the smaller boy when he yelled something in happiness before he sat back down.

"Now we have our band! Okay practice tonight, my house!" he bounced happily and laughed. Tajima was so happy, he was so forgiving of a boy that yelled at him minutes before. Mihashi would never understand that boy. He chuckled and shook his head, "Mihashi, go get his number! Go go go go go go!"

Mihashi looked hopelessly over at the other boy, "don't send me over there again, I feel like your middle man."

"C'moon!" Tajima whined.

"Why don't I call him over? I mean he was pretty compliant for me at the table, maybe he'll come over if I give him the finger thing?" he used his pointer finger as the 'come-the-fuck-over-here-now' sign at Abe and minutes later he was packing up his things and sauntering unhappily over to the table, sitting next to Hanai, who was even more jumpy after that.

"Whoa, Mihashi, you're like a god or somethin'," Tajima commented and Mizutani slapped him in the arm, "what the fuck was that for?"

"Your superior stupidness," Mizutani rolled his eyes and laughed. Tajima scrunched his nose at the other and fixed his eyes on Tajima.

"Hey, so I hear you took my offer after all," he smirked.

Abe glared, "I took Mihashi's offer, not yours."

"Hey, no need to be so cold to the guy," that was Hanai, which Mihashi was surprised. He seemed like he didn't like talking much, but jumped to Tajima's aid when he needed it. Abe snapped a glare over to the jumpy boy and he flinched looking away.

"Look, if you don't warm up to them, we're kicking you out of the band," Mihashi snapped, holding up a finger to stop Tajima's argument, "you can't keep treating Tajima like a doormat and you can't snap at Hanai," he glared, "either you start trying to make some friends or you can go back to sit by yourself."

Abe looked taken aback by the other's rant, his eyes watched him, searching his face and then he gave up, "fine, I'm sorry," he apologized to the both of them. It seemed that Abe would do anything for Mihashi that he would comply with any sort of deal, he would join a band, even though he didn't want to. Somehow one of them had to find out what was up with that kid.

"Hey, practice is tonight," Tajima said with a huge smile on his face, almost ear to ear. He had his own little band of misfits now, it would be odd to see how well they could gel together with all their different backgrounds and all their quirks.

"Tonight?" Abe asked, his brows furrowing, "I don't know–"

"C'mon, we gotta start soon so we can be awesome!" he bounced and laughed. Abe sighed and looked down at his hands.

"I don't know if I can," he made a gesture with his fingers, curling them towards him with his palm up, "but give me your phone numbers and I'll keep you updated."

A very big character change on Abe's part. But Tajima liked that he was trying to change, for Mihashi's sake. They all passed their phones around and gave each other their numbers and then the bell rang. Mihashi got up and walked with Tajima and Hanai, Abe was left trailing until they all branched off to go to their respective classes…that is, all of them except Abe and Mihashi. They walked silently together for a little bit before Abe spoke, "listen," he sighed, "I didn't mean to snap at Tajima–"

"Oh and being an asshole to him was the way to go after that?" Mihashi cut him off and turned into a room, a room that Abe was also going. It was their biology class and they were picking partners today. Well _they _weren't, the teacher was and Mihashi had high hopes that they wouldn't get paired together, but his hopes failed him. He was paired with Abe the moment he walked in and talked to him.

The teacher misread their communication as friendly and he was always trying to please. Oh, Mr. Makumara, you could have done better, you could have picked anyone else. See it wasn't that they were choosing seats three weeks in, though for the rest of the year it would be seated like that, Abe and Mihashi sitting together at one of the black slated tables, but for the first couple of weeks it was all solitary work, so there was no need to really get to know the person at your table and Mr. Makumara liked to try to make it easier on the students when group projects came around that they were paired with someone they liked. He always thought that it would help them concentrate, but really that wouldn't help at all. His logic was flawed and it got Mihashi stuck with a boy that he didn't quite prefer yet.

The two of them sat down at a table and Mihashi sighed, putting his chin in his hand while it braced on the table top, "sometimes my anger gets out of control," he confessed and looked away with a sigh. What a lame excuse, "the part at the table, yes that was my doing, I don't like to get close to people a lot," he looked away then and clenched his jaw. He wanted to apologize to all of the boys for how he acted, he should be happy that he had friends now, but couldn't seem to wrap his brain around the fact that _he had friends now_. He didn't like this, he didn't like the danger they were in; being wrapped up with him.

Mihashi sighed again, "that's a lame excuse," he commented and slid his green gaze onto his grey one, "but I accept your apology."

"Wh-what, but I didn't apologize," he looked away a slight blush on his cheeks. It was like the punk kid read his mind or something and he didn't like that one bit, but he also didn't mind it. He liked that Mihashi could see through him, maybe the boy could see the danger he was in befriending a boy like Abe, maybe he could see that in the end all of them would be hurt by him.

"You didn't, but I know you were working up for it. Just make sure to apologize to Hanai and Tajima as well," he sighed and shrugged a little bit before looking down at his notes, "listen, if we're going to be in a band together, we're going to have to get along. I hear you play guitar. Every time you come over for project work, or every time I come over to your house–"

"Let's just stay over at your house," Abe cut in, looking away again, "my house is a wreck and even if I clean it, it won't stay clean long enough, so I just give up," he was lying, but anything to keep the punk out of his home.

"Fine," Mihashi kept going after he said that word slowly, watching the boy, suspicion leaking its way into his voice, "whenever you come over to my house, you'll bring your guitar over and we'll work on chords and stuff. I'll try to bond, but there's no guarantee I'll ever like you."

"Those words hurt you know," Abe mumbled, looking away. Mihashi looked at him and patted him on the shoulder, sending Abe's heart into a stampede.

"There there," he mumbled and looked back, "those words are just to keep you on edge," the only thing that looked at Abe was the eye on his side, a smile spread on his lips. Abe didn't trust that smile, but he thought that maybe Mihashi was joking. Hopefully. He didn't want to ruin the chance with the boy he fell in love with at first sight here at Nishiura.

"Now this project will take at least a month to complete, so use your time wisely and don't procrastinate," the teacher stated seriously, "I will know who did and didn't, just warning you now," he smiled, "first come first serve on the topic they would like."

Mihashi and Abe really didn't care what topic they got, so they waited until the crowd was done before gathering there things to stop at Mr. Makumara's desk on the way out of class, "whatever you have left, Mr. Makumara, we'll take."

"Alright boys, well, I only have one left and that's the evolution of the Dichotomous Key," he looked up over his glasses at them. Mihashi nodded, and he wrote their names down next to the prompt, "I do hope to see a well preformed project from the both of you. Please take a rubric and an outline and proceed to your next class."

"Thank you, Sir," Mihashi spoke again, handing one of each to Abe and then taking one of each for himself. The teacher nodded and the boys walked out.

"So why is it up in the air that you can't go to Tajima's tonight?"


End file.
